We've built the vehicles. We've designed the movie. The principal cast is locked in. The film is funded. It's all ready to go. We just wait. Ironically, had we been shooting in Broken Hill in January and February — when we were meant to — we would have been flooded out.

The 12-month delay gives Miller time to finish Happy Feet 2, a sequel to his 2006 original that won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

It also gives me a chance to get Happy Feet [2] really going well — so there were a lot of factors in the decision. But the big one was that we really had nowhere to shoot.